13 REASONS WHY

13 Reasons why is a novel written by Jay Asher. It has won numerous awards including New York Times Best Seller Publishers, Weekly Best Seller, California Book Award Winner, Best Books for Young Adults (YALSA), Quick Picks for Reluctant YA Readers (YALSA), Selected Audio books for Young Adults (YALSA), Borders Original Voices finalist, Barnes & Noble -Top 10 Best for Teens, International Reading Assoc. - Young Adults' Choices, Kirkus Reviews Editor's Choice, Book Sense Pick - Winter, Chicago Public Library Best Books, Association of Booksellers for Children - Best Books, State Awards - Winner (voted on by students): Florida, Kansas, Kentucky. It tells the story of a teenage girls death, and the events that follow it. Hannah Baker commits suicide, two weeks later her best friend, classmate and crush finds a mysterious package lying in his porch. When he opens it he discovers thirteen tapes recorded by Hannah, explaining why she took her life.He is one of them, if he listens he'll find out why. My favorite character was Hannah as you got to understand why she took her life and the perplexing aspects included in her decision.
 Star rating : ****
:D
Aoife xoxo 

ANGELS IN MY HAIR

Angels in my hair is an autobiography by the Irish mystic Lorna Byrne. When Lorna was young people thought Lorna was "retarded" as she could not focus on the world around her as she had the ability to see angels and spirits. For many years Lorna assumed this was normal and everyone else saw the same. Lorna descirbes the story of her life from birth right through to present and the creatures that enhabit our world in particular angels. Many people still visit Lorna today in particular the weak or dieing in search of healing and consolation. I really enjoyed this book, it gave me an insigt into life at the far end of the spectrum beyond the range of everyday experience.

Rating = 5 Stars!! :) 

Aoife xxxx

  

The front cover!

If Only!

"If only" is a collection of short stories written by various Irish women writers. The main themes of the book are love, divorce, marriage, adultery, bigamy, polygamy, dreams, deciet, loss of innocence, love-children, love betrayal and love triumph but I also thought it gave a detailed insight into richly diverse levels of society in Ireland in the 1990's. The writers included in the collection are : Ivy Bannister, Shelia Barrett, Maeve Binchy, Mary Rose Callaghan, Kate Cruise O'Brein, Ita Daly, Margaret Dolan, Mary Dorcey, Mary Gordon, Katy Hayes, Jennifer Johnston, Marian Keyes, Mary Leland, Liz Macmanus, Mary Maher, Mary Morrisey, Mary O'Donnell, Patricia Scanlan and Gaye Shortland.  

One of my favorite short stories was entitled "Taxi-men are invisible" by Maeve Binchy. Set in Dublin, "Eddie" a taxi-man gives a couple a lift to the gentleman's parents house inorder to watch Ireland play Holland. Over the next few weeks the couple use Eddie's cab often, but barely seem to remember him. However this is no ordinary time for the couple, Eddie seems to notice them drift further and further apart and finally agree on a divorce. The woman is very disterested by the turn of events and is offered an abundence of support by Eddie but still never seems to notice that all of the taxis she takes are driven by the same person. However not only the couple were unaware of their surroundings, Eddie also became engulfed in their story, shown in the quoatation "But Eddie wasn't thinking about it, he was thinking about the people who travelled in his car".This story stood out for me as it shows society's obliviousness to its souroundings and how people are so engrossed in their own lives they are unaware of people or events around them.  

Overall I quite liked this book. I enjoyed the diversity of its stories, however I thought it could have improved by limiting the amount of authors and stories included in the book.

Thank you,

        

          Aoife xx